Thursday, 28 May 2015

President Buhari Promises to Nigerians

On May 29, Muhammadu Buhari will take office as President of Nigeria.
Expectations are high as most Nigerians expect the coming government to
wave a magic wand and make all their problems disappear. The Buhari
campaign which ran on a ‘CHANGE’ mantra made numerous promises to
Nigerians during the campaign.Buhari’s campaign promises as presented by Vanguard

On Politics and Governance:I,
Muhammadu Buhari, believe that our politics is broken. Our nation
urgently needs fundamental political reform and improvement in
governance more transparency and accountable. If you nominate me in
December, 2014 and elect me in February 2015, my administration will:

1.
Initiate action to amend the Nigerian Constitution with a view to
devolving powers, duties, and responsibilities to states in order to
entrench true Federalism and the Federal spirit;2. Strengthen INEC to reduce, if possible, eliminate electoral malpractices in Nigerian’s political life;3.
Attract the best and brightest of our sons and daughters into our
politics and public service by aggressive recruitment of private sector
people, academics, and professionals within

Nigeria and in the
Diaspora through internships, fellowships, executive appointments, and
special nomination to contest elective offices;4. Prevent the abuse
and misuse of Executive, Legislative and Public offices, through greater
accountability, transparency, strict, and implementable anti-corruption
laws, through strengthening and sanitising the EFCC and ICPC as
independent entities;5. Amend the Constitution to remove immunity from prosecution for elected officers in criminal cases;

6.
Restructure governance for a leaner, more efficient, and adequately
compensated public service sector, while promoting effective
participation of the private sector for more robust job creation
programmes to employ the teaming youth.;

7. Require full
disclosure in media outlets, of all government contracts over N100m
prior to award and during implementation at regular intervals;

8.
Reform and Strengthen the Justice System for efficient administration
and dispensation of justice with the creation of special courts for
accelerated hearing of corruption, drug trafficking, terrorism and
similar cases of national importance;

9. Fully enforce the
Freedom of Information Act l so that government held data sets can be
requested and used by the public and then such data sets be publish on
regular basis;10. Amend the Constitution to require Local
governments to publish their meeting minutes, service performance data,
and items of spending over N10M.Security and Conflict Resolution

On National Security and Defence:

I
will urgently secure the territorial integrity of the nation. I will
never leave the defence of the nation in the hands of Hunters, Children,
and Civilian JTF through the following:1. Urgently address capacity
building mechanisms of law enforcement agents in terms of quantity and
quality as this is critical in safeguarding the sanctity of lives and
property;2. Establish a well trained, adequately equipped and goals
driven Serious Crime Squad to combat insurgencies, kidnapping, armed
robbery, ethno-religious and communal clashes, nationwide;

3.
Consult and amend the Constitution to enable States and Local
Governments to create city, Local government and State Policing systems,
base on the resources available at each levels, to address the peculiar
needs of each community. I will therefore work with the National
Assembly to set and revised, when needed, boundaries of operations, for
Federal, State, and Local government policing units, through new
Criminal Justice legislation to replace the Criminal Code, the Penal
Code and the Police Act.

4. I will push for more robust support
in the Security and Economic stability of the West-African sub-region
and African Continent as a whole. I will seek and maintain close and
frank relationship with ALL of West Africa; Special relationship with
South Africa and its Sub-region; UK, USA, Canada, EU, Asia, and the
Middle East .

On Conflict Resolution, National Unity, And Social Harmony:

I will;1. Establish a Conflict Resolution Commission to help prevent, mitigate, and resolve civil conflicts within the polity;2.
Bring permanent peace and solution to the insurgency issues in the
North-East; the Niger Delta; and other conflict prone states and areas
such as Plateau, Benue, Bauchi, Borno, Abia, Taraba, Yobe, and Kaduna in
order to engender national unity and social harmony;

3. Initiate
policies to ensure that Nigerians are free to live and work in any part
of the country by removing state of origin, tribe, ethnic and religious
affiliations from documentation requirements in our identification of
citizens and replace these with State of Residence and fashion out the
appropriate minimal qualification for obtaining such a state of
residency, nation-wide.

On Foreign Policy:I will;1. Make
regional integration a priority within ECOWAS including free trade with a
view to ensuring that common tariff currency are in use by the end of
my term in office, under Nigeria’s guidance and leadership, base on the
size of its market force;

2. Maintain a strong, close and frank
relationship within the Gulf of Guinea, the Commonwealth, South Africa
and the rest of the world.3. Establish a special relationship with
the leading emerging markets like Brazil; Russia, India and China (BRIC)
and other strategic partners around the world.

The Economy & Infrastructure Base On the Economy:I will;1.
Maintain sound Micro and macro-economic policy environment, and run an
efficient government and preserve the independence of the Central Bank;2.
Restore financial confidence in the citizens and the world, by putting
in place a more robust monitoring, supervising, and regulating of the
financial institutions;

3. Make our economy one of the fastest
growing emerging economies in the world with a real GDP growth averaging
at least 10-12% annually4. As at 1999, Nigerian rate of
unemployment stood at about 8%, today it is estimated from official
statistics to be close to 30%. I will embark on vocational training,
entrepreneurial and skills acquisition scheme for graduates along with
the creation of Small Business Loan Guarantee Scheme to create at least 5
million new jobs by 2019. A Small and Medium Enterprises Development
Commission will be created for this purpose. I will also encourage State
Governments to focus on employment creation, by matching everyone job
created in the same state.

5. Integrate the informal economy into
the mainstream and prioritize the full implementation of the National
Identification Scheme to generate the relevant data;6. Expand domestic demand and will undertake associated public works programmes to achieve this goal;7.
Embark on export and production diversification including investment in
infrastructure; promote manufacturing, through Agro Based industries;
and expand and promote sub-regional trade through ECOWAS and AU;

8.
Make Information Technology, Manufacturing, Agriculture and
Entertainment key drivers of our economy, by reviewing the present
reward system, which is based on certification, to that based on skills,
competencies, and performances;9. Balance the Nigerian economy
across regions by the creation of 6 Regional Economic Development
Agencies (REDAs) to act as sub-regional hubs in order to promote healthy
regional competitiveness;

Put in place a N300bn Regional Growth
Fund with an average of N50bn in each geo-political region; to be
managed by the REDAs, to encourage private sector enterprise and to
support places currently reliant on only on the public sector, to
migrate to a private sector reality;

Amend the Constitution and the:10.
Land Use Act to create freehold/leasehold interests in land along with
matching grants for states to create a nationwide electronic land title
register on a state by state basis;11. Create an additional
middle-class of at least 4 million new home owners by 2019 by enacting a
national mortgage single digit interest rates for purchase of owner
occupier houses as well as review the collateral qualification to make
funding for home ownership easier, with a 15 to 30 year mortgage terms.
This will equally help our banking system migrate from short to long
term perspective of their role in sustaining the economy.

12.
Create a Social Welfare Program of at least Five Thousand Naira (N5000)
that will cater for the 25 million poorest and most vulnerable citizens
upon the demonstration of children’s enrolment in school and evidence of
immunisation to help promote family stability.13. Provide
allowances to the discharged but unemployed Youth Corps members for
Twelve (12) months while in the skills and entrepreneurial development
programmes.

14. Equate N1.00 to $1.00

On Agriculture:I will;1.
Modernize the sector and change Nigeria from being a country of
self-subsistence farmers to that of a medium/large scale farming
nation/producer;2. Create a nationwide food inspectorate division with a view to improving nutrition and eliminating food-borne hazards3.
Inject sufficient funds to the Agricultural sector to create more
agro-allied jobs by way of loans at nominal interest rates for capital
investment on medium and commercial scale cash crops;

4.
Guarantee a minimum price for all cash crops and facilitate storage of
agricultural products to overcome seasonal shortages of selected food
crops.5. Move the nation to an all year round small, medium, and
commercial farming through a coordinated integrative irrigation of our
existing dams as well as creation of more dam to collect the over
flooding waters, nationwide.

6. Revive our Agricultural Research Institutes that are in a state of comatose;7. Review and strengthened Veterinary practices nationwide.On Infrastructure:

I will;1.
Review the Public Private Partnership (PPP) enabling environment with a
view to addressing the legal, regulatory and operational bottlenecks,
challenging the effective administration of the system, by introducing
enabling legislation. In addition, I will create a National
Infrastructural Development Bank to provide loans at nominal interest
rates, exclusively for this sector;

2. Generate, transmit and
distribute electricity on a 24/7 basis whilst simultaneously ensuring
the development of sustainable/renewable energy, by 2019.3. Embark on a National Infrastructural Development Programme as a Public Private Partnership that will(a) ensure 5,000km of Superhighway including service trunks and(b) building of up to 6,800km of modern railway completed by 2019;

4.
Enact new legal and regulatory frameworks to establish independent
regulation and incentives to accelerate public and private sector
investment in seaports, railways, and inland waterways;5. Embark on
PPP schemes that will ensure every one of the 36 states has one
functional airport, with all 21st Century safety tools for effective
commercial air travel.On the Oil and Gas Industry:I will:

1. Revive and reactivate our minimally performing Refineries to optimum capacity;2.
Make the industry and Nigeria one of the world leading/cutting edge
centres for clean oil and gas technology; also producing leading world
Oil and Gas technologist, scientists, and owing mega structure
installations, drilling, processing, and production facilities and
engineers. These facilities and scientists will be supported with the
best services and research facilities.

3. Fully develop the
sector’s capacity to absorb more of the nation’s new graduate in the
labour market. The sector will be funded to produce more home-grown, but
world class engineers, scientists, technologist, etc.;4. Modernise
the NNPC and make it the national energy champion. I will consider
breaking it up into more efficient, commercially driven units; and may
strip it of its regulatory powers, so as to enable it tap into
international capital market;

5. Enforce the government master
plan for oil companies to end flaring that pollutes the air and damages
the communities and people’s health and ensure that they sell at least
half of their gas produced within Nigeria;6. Speedily pass the much-delayed Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) and ensure that local content issues are fully addressed

7. Make Nigeria the world’s leading exporter of LNG through the creation of strategic partnerships.8. Stabilise oil price

The Society & Human Capital Development On Education:I will;1.
Fully review provisions of the Universal Basic Education Act with
emphasis on gender equity in primary, secondary school enrolment whilst
improving the quality and substance of our schools, through outcome
based education, that address the individual, family, and societal roles
in education; and the associative skills and competencies that go with
these responsibilities;

2. Targeting up to 20% of our annual
budget for this critical sector whilst making substantial investments in
training quality teachers at all levels of the educational system;3.
Implement a performance based education, predicated on outcomes,
skills, and competences as against the current certificate based
qualification. I will adjust the reward system accordingly too. This
way, exams malpractice and certificate forgery will be resolved once and
for all. Young men and women interested in real liberal arts education,
based on a true understanding of scientific, the humanistic, and the
social sciences will fill our classrooms to be prepared for future
leadership of the nation;

4. Enhance teacher training and improve
the competence of teachers in the light of the 21st Century and beyond
understanding of the learner types, intelligence types, as the multiple
assessment types, in order to open up learning for all our children
types. The era of one student type will give way to an all learner type
for our children and young people as well as adults who want to return
to the classroom to sharpen their skills, competencies, and
sensibilities. This re-engineering of our education will be followed
with a clearly thought out and vigorous national inspection programmes;

5.
Make learning experiences more meaningful for children as the nation’s
education will no longer be a preparation for life, but life itself. Our
children will be democratised for education, rather than be educated
for democracy. This view of education will make educating our children
more cost-effective in the long run;6. Provide One Meal a day for
all elementary/primary/Almajiri schools That will create jobs in
Agriculture, Catering, and Delivery Services7. Develop and promote effective use of innovative teaching methods/materials in our schools;

8.
Ensure a greater proportion of expenditure on university education is
devoted to helping our youth to understand the juxtaposition of Science,
Technology, the Humanities and the Social Sciences.

9. Establish
at least six new universities of Science and Technology with satellite
campuses in various states. These six universities should be fully
equipped with ICT technologies in order to attract and encourage small
and medium scale ICT enterprises after their university education;

10. Establish technical colleges and vocational centres in each state of the federation;11.
Provide more conducive environment for private sector participation in
all levels of education. Re-authorised the NUC, TETFUN, JAMB, etc, Acts
to enable Private institutions of Higher learning to benefit from
research funds and programmes that will serve the national good;

12. Establish six centres of excellence to address the needs of special education;

On Healthcare:I will;1.
Prioritise the reduction of the infant mortality rate substantially;
reduce maternal mortality rates to the levels acceptable by the World
Health Organisation; reduce HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases
drastically and improve life expectancy by an additional 10 years on
average through our National Healthy Living program;

2. Increase
the number of physicians from 19 per 1000 population to 50 per 1000
through deliberate medication education as epitomize by nations such as
Ghana. I will increase national health expenditure per person per annum
to about N50,000 (from the less than N10,000 currently);3. Increase the quality of all federal government owned hospitals to world class standard by 2019;4.
Invest in cutting edge technology such as tele-medicine in all major
health centers in the country through partnership programmes with
communities and the private sector;

5. Provide free ante-natal
care for pregnant women; free health care for babies and children up to
school going age and for the aged; and free treatment for those
afflicted with infectious diseases such as tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS;6. Boost the local manufacture of pharmaceuticals and make non adulterated drugs readily available.Set an effective prosecution and punishment systems, for those importing or adulterating drugs in the country.

7.
The enhancement of the Epidemiological Units / Centres for Diseas
Control to meet up with Global standards in containment of disease
outbreaks, proper vaccine storage and research;8. Create an
Insurance Policy for our Journalists as the nation faces hard times and
our Journalists face more dangers in the discharge of their
investigative work, to educate Nigerians in their rights and
responsibilities.

9. Ban medical tourism by our politicians from May 29, 2015.

On Youth, Sports and Culture:I will;1.
Provide the opportunities such as setting up functional recreational
facilities, Library with e-services, Community Centers, in collaboration
with States, Local Government Authorities, Local Development Areas, etc
for youth to realize, harness, and develop their potentials to the
fullest, in order to facilitate the emergence of the new generation of
citizens, who will be committed to the sustenance of good governance and
service to the people and the country;

2. Establish Zonal
world-class sports academies and training institutes and ensure that
Nigeria occupies a place of pride in global sports and athletics;3.
Revive and restructure the Nigerian Football League and put incentives
in place to make it as competitive as other national leagues4. Put
in place measures to identify talents early and ensure their
participation in local and international games to enable them to be true
professionals;

5. Help as well as mandate schools and
communities to create neighborhood playgrounds/sports centre. I will
create matching support funds for communities to acquire the needed
equipment to develop skills and competencies;

6. Assist Nollywood
to fully develop into world class movie industry that can compete
effectively with Hollywood and Bollywood in due course. I will support
the creative and performing arts with the necessary environment where by
our great entertainers do not end their lives in abject poverty as is
currently the case.